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Law in Ealdremen
Though the myriad of jurisdictions and governments throughout Ealdremen can have sometimes dramatically different laws, larger factions and organizations tend to have more similar laws than not. While there is no real overarching power that connects all of Ealdremen together, lawmakers and enforcers of the law tend to try to make the most important laws as congruent as possible across different groups for the sake of having a cohesive, functioning society. Major Issues Chrono Usage 'Abjuration' Abjuration spells are commonly regarded as harmless and mostly for defensive applications. In jurisdictions where limits on magic exist, placing wards anywhere beyond property owned by the user of the spell requires a permit or written permission from the owner. However, jurisdictions without strong magic control will often forget abjuration entirely, making it a commonly-elected school of magic for those desiring to prank others by placing wards or shields in surprising locations. 'Conjuration' The breadth of the conjuration makes it one of the most difficult schools of magic to regulate. Unless a jurisdiction is inclined to ban all magic, conjuration spells of the healing subschool tend to face no restrictions beyond the needs of the subject (such as not responding well to magical healing or desiring medicinal healing for personal reasons). Calling, summoning, and creation spells, however, face significantly different laws depending on the region. Some view creation as inherently wrong and contrary to the ways of nature, or otherwise rife for abuse; these views are common in Beynid territories. Others see creation uses of conjuration as normal, efficient, and even helpful, and they will not be regulated anymore than actually physically creating an object might be. Making a useful tool is one thing; making a weapon is another and would face scrutiny from local law enforcement. Jurisdictions that do not ban summoning or calling other creatures from planes require that the creature be under the control of the summoner; summoned creatures causing problems will result in the summoner being punished for bringing the creature into the world. A common law is "The summoner reaps what the summoned reaves" -- that is to say, if a summoned creature violates a law, it tends to be treated as if the summoner had violated the law themselves. Teleportation spells are not widely understood or practiced throughout Ealdremen. Learning such spells is difficult, time-intensive, and seems to be rife with so many unknowns that many have elected to leave teleportation beyond small distances alone. Teleporting to other planets is widely regarded as impossible under current understandings of magic. 'Divination' Low level divination spells are often regarded as harmless except for jurisdictions firmly inclined to prevent the "controlling" of other people by foreseeing certain outcomes. Higher-level divination that allows scrying, however, tends to require a warrant or permit to specifically scry on a given subject, as it falls under the category of unlawful spying (universally disallowed in major jurisdictions, even if there is no written law against it). Being caught scrying without the proper lawful precedent can result in a fine (in jurisdictions where scrying is viewed as uncommon or mostly harmless) to time in prison (mostly common in jurisdictions where sensitive, often government secrets might be leaked due to scrying). 'Enchantment' Enchantment spells do not face universal bans as often as necromancy does, but due to their potential for abuse, especially when used on unaware subjects who are not accustomed to steeling themselves against magic, they face the most scrutiny. For the most part, usage of enchantment spells outside of self-defense on unaware or unwilling subjects (the latter caveat being included for the benefit of magic shows) is strictly forbidden. Smaller jurisdictions, especially magic-fearing ones, might be more inclined to ban enchantment spells entirely without a permit to practice such magic in particular contexts. Interrogations of prisoners might entail the use of enchantment spells to obtain information. Opinions on the morality of this, especially in conjunction with the usual law forbidding enchantment spells, can vary immensely. Notably, as the Veriol Council's Ministers of Intelligence have historically been users of magic, such debates on the ethics of enchantment spells on unwilling prisoners are especially common in Veriol Alliance territories. 'Evocation' The straightforward nature of most evocation spells renders evocation as, ironically, one of the least likely schools of magic to be feared by the general populace and lawmakers despite its potential for destructive power. As destruction of private property, injuring other people, and so on are forbidden by law anyway, evocation spells are not explicitly forbidden; rather, it's understood that evocation spells are akin to firearms or other weapons. They are permitted to exist, and they can be used recreationally without much trouble in many cases, but using them to maim or kill someone else -- or destroy property -- results in legal repurcussions. Casters who have not yet learned to control their abilities, especially sorcerers or other users of innate magic, are often not allowed to practice evocation spells without supervision until they are judged to be capable of controlling it. Some whose innate magic is inherently inclined to evocation spells may even be required to remain on Chrono suppressants unless they receive therapy and formal training in magic. This is less due to a fear of evocation itself and more an acknowledgement of the volatility of the school and its potential for disaster in the hands of an untrained magic-user. 'Illusion' As illusions tend to mostly deceive and are mostly harmless, they are commonly used in extravagant productions where subjects are assumed to be suspending their disbelief. So long as illusion spells do not cause disruption or problems beyond mild inconvenience, they tend to not be regulated or banned. Glamer spells to change the appearance of someone or something are expressly not permitted in situations where it may be harmful to the subject, such as making a rotting piece of food appear appetizing; however, something such as creating an illusion of something very strange or unusual to see how people react to it would be unlikely to face legal repurcussions unless there was somehow severe damage resulting from the illusion. 'Necromancy' Formally, it is acknowledged that many necromancy spells are not directly connected to reanimating the dead or otherwise "desecrating" corpses with magic. However, many governments do not seek to outline specifically what necromancy spells are and are not allowed, and they instead enforce a blanket ban of necromancy practices across the general population. The Alamo Empire, Gerualdi Union, and Veriol Alliance all reject necromancy in this fashion, making it difficult for cultures that do not ban necromancy to do trade with these factions. In practice, a necromantic spell that does not manipulate corpses at all, such as Deathwatch, might not be recognized as "truly necromantic" or worth investigating, or the user of the spell may receive a lighter punishment than someone using a Raise Dead spell. Critics of necromancy-related laws regard this as a disconnect between the academic and social definitions of necromancy, and it is often used as a point in arguments of specific spells being banned as opposed to entire schools of magic. Research of necromancy does exist, but it tends to be kept under such strict regulation and monitoring that only the most dedicated of scholars will bother. Law enforcement might be permitted use of some necromancy spells in niche circumstances; such occasions, however, tend to be kept under wraps and out of the eyes of citizens, lest the apparent hypocrisy of law enforcement encourage more people to take up necromancy. 'Transmutation' Transmutation is divided into two categories -- usage on living creatures and usage on objects. Unless it is somehow harmful to others, or involves property not belonging to the caster of the spell, transmutation is almost always permitted to be practiced on objects. Transmutation on creatures is either banned or requires consent from the subject. The practice of transmutation on creatures incapable of giving consent, such as animals, tends to vary in legality throughout jurisdictions. Interracial Relationships In the early days of space exploration, interracial relationships were frowned upon partially due to how many unknown factors were at play. Would such closeness result in diseases, "contaminated" crossbreed children, or societal collapse as cultures became unrecognizable from their original form? Some of these bans have persisted even in the face of modernization and the era of all being aliens to someone -- which is to say, races and people have become so displaced from their original cultures that some immigrants who were once foreigners long ago have descendants that have lived in that region for hundreds of years. Culture informs law, and it is no different with laws pertaining to interracial relationships. Historically, the Alamo Empire has encouraged cultural intermingling and consequently interracial relationships, though suspicious scrutiny was sometimes given to relationships between Raljikkan and non-Raljikkan species. Other territories have followed suit since, and because so many races live in the same areas now, no longer divided even by vast stretches of space between their planets of origin, interracial relationships are usually legal (even if on a local level, they might not necessarily be common or even socially acceptable). Written laws outright making interracial relationships illegal are often challenged and taken down due to foreign pressure, especially from faction giants such as not only the Alamo Empire, but also the Veriol Alliance and Gerualdi Union. Countries torn apart by racial strife, such as Lyzots or Kyrol, may have local laws forbidding interracial relationships simply for the sake of "maintaining peace". Laws forbidding relationships between lirastots and zhijis are both most strict and most common, as the resulting geralkki lut offspring can cause "social chaos" or lead to the "extinction" of their parent races if they become too numerous. Critics of "maintaining peace" laws argue that these laws only reinforce bigotry or are thin disguises for the prejudices of the lawmakers themselves. Self-Defense The legality of violent or even lethal self-defense varies immensely across jurisdictions; in a sharp contrast to many other commonly debated issues in law, it seems that no entity can quite agree where to draw the line on self-defense in such a large galaxy where both enforcing such laws and enforcing ways to prevent the need for self-defense are impossible. Proponents of self-defense argue that the existence of pirates, marauders, dangerous beasts, and worse in Ealdremen requires self-defense to be legal for the sake of anyone who does not live in "a small box that no one can neither enter nor leave". Furthermore, with the accessibility of magic, weapons, and combinations of the two, there is little reason why not everyone can have the means of self-defense. Opponents argue that excess legality of self-defense creates an eternal arms race with one's own neighbors; if your neighbor is capable of burning down your house with a single spell and just has to somehow prove he was "defending" himself from you to make it legal, then you will feel inclined to have both a way of countering that spell and taking revenge on him. Thus, the cycle continues where the neighbor feels the need to be able to overpower his neighbor, and so on. Currently, self-defense is considered universally legal in space territories; self-defense cannot be prosecuted without proof that the actions were not in self-defense. This is due to the nature of space; it is altogether easy to be stranded with no one to rely on but oneself, and it is also easy for a potential criminal to feel that disposing of the evidence of the attack would be simple. Escaping space conflicts is not always easy or even the best idea. A small spaceship attacked by a larger one could conceivably have nowhere to run to and would have no choice but to stand and fight if negotiation is not possible. The Alamo Empire requires that self-defense is reactive; the aggressor must have displayed express malevolent intent to truly harm in some way. Though not written in law, typical imperial views of self-defense frown upon turning to violence if there was no attempt at preventing violence through intimidating the aggressor. To someone of the Alamo Empire's militaristic culture, a sword is most sharp before it has made its first cut, because the potential victim does not yet know how much damage will or won't be done with a retaliatory attack. The legality of self-defense varies across Veriol Alliance territories, where it is determined at a local level. Typically, regions with greater urbanization and influence from the arcane-focused culture of Tumoria (the birthplace of the Veriol Alliance) will frown upon actual violent self-defense, but permit self-defense that uses magic to de-escalate the conflict, such as by using an enchantment spell to render the aggressor harmless. Critics of Gerualdi Union laws say that its laws that consider self-defense to be a matter for the people involved are simply a tactic to ensure maximum court disputes and financial gain for governments and lawyers. Laws relating to self-defense are notoriously vague and sometimes even conflicting; even long-time practicing lawyers and judges do not seem to be able to agree on what the letter of the law exactly is. Weapon Ownership Worship of Malevolent Gods and Powers Category:Ealdremen Law Category:No Spoilers